campjupiterfandomcom-20200213-history
Demigod Games 16
Chapter 16: Nicky The sky was black. It wasn't night time, and it wasn't smoke. It was birds. Annabeth's warning had come too late. It hadn’t been just the one nest, but thousands, swarming down at us from the trees. “This is it.” she’d said. “The finale.” In the last three days, we’d seen every other tribute in the arena’s name flash through the sky. Frank had tried every animal form he could think of, even the bees, but in the end they took him out with sheer numbers. We’d seen Thalia go down when one of her own arrows bounced off the birds’ metal feathers and into her chest. The only reason we’d survived? We were hiding in an air bubble at the bottom of the lake. Last night, we’d seen the very last tributes’ names projected on the sky. (Well, the birds.) I did it, I thought. Annabeth and I were the last tributes standing. She was going to go home safe. I just had to get myself killed. “What are we gonna do about these birds?” Annabeth said, probably more to herself than me. She had been trying to think of a way to get rid of them for days, and I didn’t want to tell her it was useless. Even if we could destroy all the birds, the Capital would just send something even worse. They wanted their grand finale, and they were gonna get it one way or another. “Annabeth. Do you remember what I said in my interview?” I said. She looked over at me, confused. Then her eyes lit up with realization. “Percy, don’t. We can find another way-” “There is no other way, Annabeth! There can only be one victor. And it’s not going to be me.” Water began rising between us, putting us in separate bubbles. “Percy-” She pounded on the water. “I’m sorry.” I said, as the water closed us off completely. “I love you, Annabeth.” I had my bubble rise to the surface of the lake, and swam over to the shore. I stared up at the cloud of birds. They’d already noticed me, and were flying in my direction. I’d been steeling myself for this since I volunteered. My own inevitable death. I had thought I was ready, but I still had to fight the urge to run, or fight back. They were getting closer. I felt sick to my stomach. At least Annabeth is safe, I thought. I heard a ding. I looked away from the birds for a moment, and saw a Capital blimp floating my way. Can’t you see I’m trying to die heroically here, I thought at whoever sent it. What could they possibly think would help me now? I was tempted to just throw it away, but gave in and tore it open, hoping it wasn’t more ribbons. It’s almost as dumb as ribbons, I thought, staring into the canister. A tape recorder. And another note: Don’t give up just yet -C I glared at the paper. Carter, again? He had no idea what he was talking about. What choice did I have besides giving up, in this situation? It was me or the girl I loved. I couldn’t let her die. I glared at the tape recorder. The birds would be upon me any second now. I looked at the recorder, then back at the birds, then back at the recorder. I hit play. And, promptly dropped the thing, clutching my ears in pain. The recorder emitted a horrible screeching noise, louder than anything I’d ever heard. This must be part of some sick Capital stunt, I thought. The blimp wasn’t from Carter, it was from the Capital. They wanted me to die on my knees, in pain, on top of everything else. Shouldn’t the birds have gotten me by now? They had seemed only seconds away when I hit the button. I couldn’t tell, now, the pain was blurring my vision. I could barely even think. It seemed like an eternity later when the noise finally ended. I expected that the recording had just run out, but when I looked up I saw a hand on the ‘stop’ button. The hand was attached to a girl, her blonde hair and her orange shirt both soaking wet. “Annabeth!” I tried to stand, but fell back down, still shaking from the sound. Annabeth took my hand and pulled me up. “Don’t ever do that again,” she said. “How did you get up here?” I asked. “The air bubble collapsed.” She glared at me. “I thought that meant you were dead. “I swam back up to the top, and saw you nearly passed out. I guess that broke your concentration and made your powers fail.” She looked at the tape recorder in her hand. “That noise was really awful. Where did you get this?” I showed her the blimp, and the note. “Do you think it’s the same guy who sent the ribbons?” “Of course not.” I said. “Why would Carter want to destroy my eardrums?” She gave me that look that meant I was missing something. “Uh, Percy?” she pointed at the sky. I panicked for a second, remembering the birds. But when I looked up, all I saw was blue sky. It was when I looked down that I saw them. They littered the ground, now covering the grass as thickly as they’d covered the sky. Cracked and broken, lying motionless. “The frequency of the sound must have been too much for their hardware. It destroyed them.” She looked back at the recorder. “It’s genius. I want to meet this ‘Carter’ person.” “You will.” I said, uncapping Riptide and handing it to her. “No. I’m not going to do this, Percy.” She dropped the sword on the ground. “Annabeth, one of us has to die. One of us has to go home. It should be-” “No!” She interrupted. She dug around in her pocket, then pulled out two vials. I recognized more of the poison that had killed Khione, the poison strong enough to kill a god. “The rules say one of us needs die.” She handed me a vial. “They don’t say one of us needs to go home.” “What?!” I nearly threw the vial onto the ground, but something in her stare stopped me. It was that look again, telling me she knew something I didn’t. Was it really poison? What was she planning? Should I trust her? She raised her vial of poison to her lips. After a moment’s hesitation, I did the same. Just as the poison touched our lips, I voice carried out into the arena. “Stop! Stop!!!” The frantic voice of Augustus Collector said. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the victors of the 39th annual Demigod Games! Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase!” I met eyes with Annabeth, and we both dropped our vials. The glass broke, and the poison killed the grass it splattered onto. “Did you swallow any?” She asked. “No. You?” She shook her head. Then she wrapped her arms around me in a crushing hug. “That was genius, Wise Girl.” I whispered in her ear. An air ship appeared above us, and dropped a ladder. I made her climb up first, following close behind. As we sat in the air conditioned, white-walled air ship infirmary, I started tearing up. I was alive. It was over, and we were both alive. “I love you, Annabeth.” I said. She took my hand tightly. “I love you too.” We stared out the window at the approaching Capital City, not letting go of eachother. We would never let go of eachother again. --- The woman walked steadily across the rocky outcrop of stones and boulders. She looked out of place, among the ruins, with her red-orange pantsuit and styled blonde hair. Or she would have, if there had been anyone around to see her. She walked on towards one decrepit building in particular. She approached the crumbling door and spoke the word, “Sahad.” The doorway disappeared, and was replaced by a stairway, going farther down than she could see. Her master’s plan had gone even better than they could have ever imagined, she thought, as she descended the steps. His old friend Percy Jackson had not only won the games, he had brought his fellow faction 7 tribute with him. Annabeth Chase had broken the rules of the games, saved her own life and flaunted her insubordination in front of the whole nation, on live television. All of Olympus had seen the Capital’s game used against them by a teenage girl. They’d seen someone fight back, and come out the winner. Of course, in the festivities afterwords, they had tried to play it off as if it had truly been their intention to die. I couldn’t bare to live in a world without him, she’d said in an interview. No doubt their mentor had advised her to lie, to try and pacify the Capital. But they’d studied Annabeth Chase. A daughter of Athena, a master strategist. She had been bluffing, and she had known the Capital wouldn’t have the guts to call that bluff. The woman reached the bottom of the stairs, and walked down a hall toward a door bearing the Ankh symbol. She opened it without knocking. The room was small, lined with bookshelves and containing a desk near the center. At the desk sat a dark-skinned teenage boy, wearing a button-down t-shirt and slacks. He looked up from the papers he had been reading, and smiled. “Welcome back, Hestia.” he said. Hestia bowed. “It’s good to be back, Pharaoh.” “Any news?” he asked. “There have been three more uprisings in faction 4. Zeus is sending in extra forces to quell them.” Hestia said, taking a seat on the other side of the desk. Hestia did feel guilty, in a way, betraying her own siblings. She was the goddess of family, and she always had an obligation to them. It was because of her place as goddess of family, though, that she could not sit by and watch as her nieces and nephews were murdered for cheap entertainment. The Egyptian gods and their magic had been collateral damage when the United States collapsed and the Greek gods took direct rule. The House of Life, or Per Ankh, had continued operating in secret, plotting against the Capital. Faction 8 had been their base of operations before it was destroyed in the first war, and it still was. Only now, it was underground. Hestia had been acting as a Per Ankh spy ever since the first Demigod Games. She would put an end to the barbaric games, even if it meant taking her siblings out of power. “We’ll increase support to the revolutionaries in faction 4. Are they still rallying around Percy and Annabeth?” Carter asked. Carter had been whisked away from his home in faction 7 at age 14, to take over as Pharaoh after his father died. It had been Carter’s idea to support Percy in the games, and make sure he got out safely. They had been good friends, as children. Hestia thought Carter could use more friends. He excelled at his position, but he was still a kid, and he could use some fun once in awhile. “Yes. They’re even painting graffiti of that owl pin Annabeth had with her in the arena.” Hestia replied. Carter looked up at the ceiling wistfully. “They returned to their homes in faction 7 this morning. They’re only a few miles away, right now.” Hestia smiled at him. “We’ll contact them soon.” Carter nodded. “Once we have them on our side, it’s only a matter of time before we take the Capital down.” --- Chapter Index Category:Nickystellar Category:Fanfiction Category:Demigod Games Category:Crossovers